My Summer with Ethan Craft
by meeko33905
Summary: When all his friends are gone for the Summer, Gordo is forced to hang out with Lizzie's dim-witted former crush. Will a new friendship form or will Gordo even survive?
1. Lizzie's Punishment

First, I would like to say that this is my first attempt at fan fiction of any kind, let alone Lizzie McGuire fan fiction. Please, be kind, but be truthful. If it's bad, please tell me, but nicely.  
  
Also I don't own any of the Lizzie McGuire characters or locations, so please don't take any legal actions against me. Thanks.   
  
Enjoy!  
  
CHAPTER 1:   
  
The last few weeks of Lizzie McGuire's life had been the time of her life. On a class trip to Rome, she met Italian pop star Paulo and spent the trip impersonating his former partner Isabella. To do this, however, she had to pretend to be sick and then sneak away for the rest of her school group. After Lizzie had returned home, Lizzie's deceit and lies did not go over too well with her parents.   
  
"Grounded for the summer?!" Lizzie shouted. The punishment sounded pretty tough.   
  
"Ha-Ha. Way to go sis. You really did it this time." Lizzie's annoying brother Matt came into the room in his usual charming fashion.  
  
"Shut up, Matt." Lizzie hurled a pillow at her brother's face.   
  
After seeing her children start to fight, Mrs. McGuire attempted to keep the peace. "Lizzie, don't throw things at your brother. Matt, go to your room."  
  
Matt and Lizzie shot each other dirty looks and Matt stomped up the stairs. Mr. McGuire continued his speech to his daughter. "You do the crime, you do the time. You should know better than to do things like that." It was a typical dad type of thing to say.   
  
"But for the whole summer? That's not fair." Lizzie still tried to fight her punishment, although she knew that it was a fair one.   
  
"Yes, Lizzie." Her mom replied "And that means no phone, no internet, no TV..."  
  
"What about my friends? What about Gordo? Can't I hang out with him?"  
  
"Sweetheart, punishments aren't always fun." Her dad said. "Besides, if you wanted to hang out with your friends so much, you should have done it in Rome insteed of posing as some Pop Princess."  
  
A thought suddenly came to Lizzie's mother. "Wait, Sam," Mrs. she called to her husband, "I just remembered; we can't ground Lizzie for the summer".   
  
This got Lizzie's attention. Things were looking up. "Really? Why?" she asked eager to find out what had saved her from the fate of being grounded.  
  
"Remember, we're all going to be spending the summer with your grandmother at her condo?"  
  
This idea did not sound any better to Lizzie. "The ENTIRE summer?"   
  
"Yes, Lizzie. Your grandmother wants to spend more time with you before you start high school."  
  
"But..."  
  
Mr. McGuire put his foot down. "Now Lizzie, it's either spend the summer with your grandmother or spend it in your room."  
  
Her mom smiled. "And maybe if you're good, your grandmother will let you play poker with the girls."  
  
It wasn't a great conciliation, but it sounded better than sitting in her room all summer. "Ok," she reluctantly agreed. "I'll spend the summer with Grandma. Can I at least call Gordo before I go, though?"  
  
"Well..." Lizzie's dad didn't sound so sure about that.   
  
Mrs. McGuire thought for a second. "Of course, Lizzie, but just Gordo."  
  
"Thanks, mom." Lizzie hugged her mother and ran upstairs.   
  
David Gordon was lying on his bed, staring at his ceiling, and tossing around a hacky sack when the phone rang. He picked up the phone and said "Hello?"   
  
"Gordo, it's Lizzie."   
  
Gordo's heart jumped. He had not talked to Lizzie since they had returned from Rome and secretly he had been hoping that she would call. However, when he heard the tone of her voice, he could tell something was wrong. "Hey, Lizzie, what's up?" he said with concern.   
  
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?"   
  
This did not sound promising. "The good news."   
  
"Well, The good news is that I'm not grounded for the summer.   
  
"Well, that's good." Gordo was relieved. He was afraid that Lizzie would be in big trouble from what she pulled while in Rome. Maybe now that she's not, maybe they could spend more time together. "Then what's the bad news?"  
  
"Well, I won't exactly be here for the rest of the summer. I'll kinda be spending the Summer with my family at my grandmother's condo."   
  
Gordo's heart sank. He really thought that this summer he and Lizzie may be able to become more than just friends and maybe start dating. This was obviously not going to happen now. "That's, uhh... too bad," He tried to hide some of his disappointment, but it came across to Lizzie.   
  
"Gordo, I wish it could be different, but my parents said that if I didn't go I would be grounded and I wouldn't be able to spend the summer with you anyway. I hope you're not too disappointed."   
  
Of course he was very disappointed, but he said "No. No, that's OK. I'll just have to find someone else to hang out with this summer... and I'll call you."  
  
"That would be cool, but my parents took away my phone privileges as part of my punishment. I wish I could call you though, but I can't."  
  
This couldn't get any worse. "Well... I guess this is good bye for a while."  
  
"Yeah." Lizzie could tell Gordo was upset. It hurt her to hear him like that, but there was nothing she could do. "Oh, Gordo would you do me a favor?"  
  
"Sure. Anything."  
  
"Call Miranda for me and tell her where I am, OK? My parents only let me have one phone call before they took my phone way."   
  
"Are you sure you're grounded and not being jailed?" They both chuckled, even though it was not that funny.   
  
"Yeah, well, I guess I'll see you in a few months"  
  
"Yeah. See ya." Gordo hung up the phone and sighed. This summer was turning out to be nothing like he hoped it would be. 


	2. Ethan's Call

True to his word to Lizzie, Gordo called Miranda later that evening. Even though she had visiting family in Mexico for the summer, both Gordo and Lizzie had kept in touch with her while she was gone. When Gordo gave Miranda Lizzie's message , she was shocked. "Wow, that's terrible," she said with a bit of disbelief.   
  
"Yeah." Gordo agreed .   
  
"You were really hoping things would change this summer, weren't you?"  
  
Gordo began to wonder if everyone knew how much he liked Lizzie. "I guess." The answer was yes, but he didn't want to tell Miranda that. "Anyway, with the two best friends gone, what am I suppose to do?"  
  
"Why don't you hang out with someone else?"  
  
"Who? Everyone's gone or on vacation. Lizzie and Matt are both at their grandmother's, Tudgeman is vacationing with his family in Florida. I even got desperate and asked Kate and she'll be at cheerleading camp all summer."   
  
"Oooo... that's pretty bad."   
  
"Yeah." Gordo's phone began to beep. "Wait a sec, I think I have someone on the other line."   
  
"OK, but don't take too long. This is long distance, remember?"  
  
Gordo switched to the other line and heard a familiar voice on the phone. "Hey Gordon! It's Ethan. What's up, dude?"  
  
It was Ethan Craft, Lizzie's long-time crush. Gordo was kind of stunned. Ethan had never called him before and, to be honest, it was kind of weird. Why would Ethan call him? "Oh, hi, uhh.. Ethan. Could you hold on for a sec? I've got Miranda on the other line long distance."  
  
"Ok."  
  
"Great, thanks." Gordo switched it back to Miranda.   
  
"Who was it?" Miranda asked.   
  
"Just Ethan."  
  
"JUST Ethan? Ethan CRAFT?!? Oh my gosh!! Is he still on the line?"  
  
"Uhhh.. yeah."   
  
"Oh my gosh! Me and Ethan Craft are on different lines on the same phone- at the same time! This is so cool!"  
  
"Whoa, whoa. What's he big deal?" Gordo felt like Miranda was over reacting too much.  
  
"What's the big deal? Ethan Craft is, like, the most popular guy in school. The most popular guy in school is calling YOU! Oh, my gosh, what if he's calling to ask you to hang out?" Miranda gasped. "That would be soooo cool! That must be it. You said no one else in town was there."  
  
"Miranda, I don't care how popular he is, Ethan Craft is about the biggest doufus I know. Why would I want to hang out with him?"  
  
"Gordo, don't be so mature. Just tell him that you'll hang out with him."  
  
"He never asked. You're just jumping to conclusions."  
  
"Well, whatever he asks, just answer yes! Oh my gosh! What if he's asking you about me! Maybe he has a crush on me! That would be soo cool. Just think- Mrs. Miranda Craft!"  
  
"OK, Mrs. Craft," Gordo said in his usual sarcastic fashion, "I'll find out what he wants. I'll talk to you later." Gordo groaned and said "Girls." the way teenage boys always do when they can't figure girls out.   
  
Gordo switched the phone back to Ethan. "Hi, Ethan, are you still there?"  
  
"Yeah, Gordon, what's up?"  
  
"Uhh.. not much. What's up with you?"  
  
"Ahh.. not a thing dude." Gordo thought Ethan would say more, but not a word came out of the phone. Gordo was confused.   
  
"So, uhh... why did you call?"  
  
"Oh, yeah. You know how like everyone's gone for the summer, right?"  
  
"Yeah."   
  
"Well, I found out that you were still here, and I thought maybe we could hang out or something."  
  
Gordo couldn't believe it. Miranda was right; Ethan did want to hang out with him. It didn't seem to make sense, but Gordo didn't want to be impolite. "Uhh... sure."  
  
"Cool. I'll meet you at the Digital Bean tomorrow at 2, 'K?"  
  
"Sure, OK. Tomorrow at 2"  
  
"Cool," Ethan replied. "See ya then."  
  
"Yeah. Later." Gordo hung up the phone. 


	3. The Digital Bean

Chapter Three  
  
The next day started as a pretty dull day for Gordo. With no Lizzie or Miranda around, he just stayed home. There didn't seem to be any point doing otherwise with all of his friends gone. Most of his morning was in his room most of the morning watching TV, followed by lunch.   
  
After lunch he returned to his room where he found his Eighth Grade Yearbook sitting on his dresser. As he flipped through all the pages, he stopped to look at the pictures of Lizzie throughout the book. She looked so beautiful. There was no denying that he missed her very much. "And to think," he said to himself with a sigh, "I thought this summer would be the summer when she'd finally notice me." After a while, he turned a page and saw a picture of Ethan Craft. Just then he remembered that he had promised Ethan to be at Digital Bean that day at 2. Noticed that it was five minutes until 2, Gordo quickly got up and walked to his bedroom door. As he began to open the door, he stopped himself and considered just not going. After all, it was Ethan. It was not like he was one of his friends or anything. Still, Gordo knew he had made a promise and decided that he was going to keep it. Besides, even if he's late, Ethan probably wouldn't notice. Gordo wasn't even convinced that Ethan could even tell time anyway.   
  
Gordo did arrive at the Digital Bean on time, though. As soon as he came in, Ethan spotted him and motioned Gordo to sit down. "Hey, Gordon. What's up?"  
  
Gordo attempted to smile to be polite. "Not much more than yesterday," he replied back.   
  
"Yeah, I get what you're sayin', man. Same here."   
  
For being the "most popular guy in school"- or at least, the most popular according to Miranda- Ethan didn't seem to be doing much. Gordo wasn't sure what exactly to say to him next. He managed to think of "So, what are you going to be doing this summer? Going anywhere cool?"  
  
"Naa," he answered shaking his head 'no,' "I'm stuck here all summer. My dad's gone on business a lot, so I promised him that I'd look after my step mom."  
  
For some reason this sort of impressed Gordo. It was the first thing that he had ever seen out of Ethan that resembled loyalty of any kind, Somehow he had never pictured Ethan as the type to look out for his family like that. Gordo replied back to him, "Yeah, same here. I'll be here all summer too."  
  
Gordo didn't get the entire sentence out of his mouth before it seemed like Ethan had been distracted. He was now staring at the screen of the computer on the table moving the mouse wildly and hitting it on the table. He was back to being the same old Ethan. Gordo looked over to him and said, "Something wrong?"  
  
"Gordon, you're smart, right?"  
  
Gordo wanted to say 'Well, compared to you, I'm a genius' but restrained himself and just said, "Yeah, I guess."  
  
"Do you know how this thing works?"  
  
"You mean the computer?"  
  
"Yeah, that's it."  
  
Ethan had been coming to the Digital Bean for this long and never knew how to use a computer? "Well what do you want to know?" Gordo was trying to help, but wasn't exactly sure what kind of help needed. Maybe mental help.   
  
"How do you get stuff on it?"  
  
Stuff? Yep, this was defiantly the same old Ethan. "You mean web sites?"  
  
"Yeah. Yeah that's it."  
  
"Well, did you type in the URL?"  
  
"Gordon, I'm not an idiot. You don't have to spell things out for me."  
  
Gordo stopped himself again from saying something less than kind to Ethan and managed to get out "No, URL is an acronym for Universal Research Locator. It's what you type into the address bar in order to reach the site you want to go to." Hopefully, this wouldn't be too many big words for Ethan to understand.   
  
"Ohh..." At last it sounded like Ethan had understood what Gordo had said. He turned to the computer and started, appeared to strart thinking very hard about what he was about to type. It seemed like he was thinking very hard. After a while, he turned to Gordo and said "I don't think I know any URLs."  
  
That figures. "Did you try a search?"  
  
"Naaa. How do you do that?"  
  
"You type in what you're looking for in there and then click the 'search' button."  
  
Ethan managed to do that and was thrilled when it worked. "All right!" he exclaimed. Gordo thought was a little strange that Ethan was so excited that he found a few websites, but since only minutes before he thought you get to sites by pounding the mouse on the table, this must have been a big deal for him.   
  
Gordo looked over to see what Ethan was searching. It was golf. "Golf?" he asked, attempting to make some sort of small talk.   
  
"Yeah," Ethan answered back. It seemed like Ethan had become a zombie to the glowing light of the computer screen.   
  
"Do you play?" Gordo attempted more small talk.  
  
"Oh, yeah. Do you?"  
  
"Can't say that I ever have."  
  
"Gordon, you've got to try it sometimes. You'd love it."  
  
Gordo couldn't picture himself golfing - ever, but he answered "Well, maybe someday. I'd have to learn to play first"  
  
"Dude, it's easy." Ethan replied back to him, followed by explaining all the rules of the game. Again, Gordo was surprised by Ethan. Some of the rules of the game were pretty complicated. Maybe Ethan's not as dumb as Gordo though.   
  
Ethan continued searching through golf websites until he finally cried out, "Hey, cool. There's going to be a golf tournament just, like, an hour away from here next week. That would be killer." Ethan went on talking for another couple of hours about golf, or though it seemed to Gordo. Finally, Gordo had had about as much as he could take.   
  
"Well, it looks like I've got to go. Lots to do, you know." Gordo really couldn't think of anything he had to do, but anything seemed better than staying there and listening to Ethan babble any more.   
  
"Cool, Later, Gordon."  
  
"Sure," Gordo agreed, "latter." 


	4. Jealous?

The next few days were some of the most uneventful Gordo could remember. He watched more TV than he had ever watched in his entire life and wasted hours in front of his computer playing Pong on the internet with a girl from China. All in all, it couldn't get any less exciting as this. As he was lying on his bed counting how many seconds passed until he would blink next, the phone rang. It was Miranda. "Soooo....?" she asked him. It was a rather abrupt way to start a conversation.   
  
"Miranda, what's up?"  
  
"So what did Ethan want? Does he love me?"   
  
"Oh, yeah. I forgot. You were right. He wanted to hang out."  
  
Miranda was getting more excited every minute. "And you did?"   
  
"I had nothing else to do." Gordo said all this in a fairly blasé fashion.   
  
"Oh my gosh! What did you do?"  
  
Gordo was getting pretty annoyed at this point. "If you say 'Oh my gosh' one more time I will through this phone right out this window."  
  
"Ok, OK, sheesh. So, what happened?"  
  
"Not much. I met him at the Digital Bean and taught him how to use a computer. Then he talked for about 20 years about golf."  
  
"That is incredible!"  
  
"What is up with you girls? Why is everything that Ethan Craft does so incredible?"  
  
"Because he's popular."   
  
"Miranda, I told you that popularity does not really matter in real life and in real life Ethan Craft is just a big, stupid doufus."  
  
"Oh, come on Gordo. You're just saying that because you're jealous of him."  
  
Gordo was shocked at this assumption. "What? Me? Jealous? Of Ethan Craft?"  
  
"Yeah. You. Jealous. Of Ethan Craft" Miranda replied, mimicking and mocking him at the same time.   
  
"That's ridiculous. I would know if I'm jealous of someone or not. Besides, why would I even be jealous of him?"  
  
"Maybe it's because there's something he has that you wish you did?"  
  
Until that moment, it never hit Gordo why he's always held such a low view of Ethan. It was because of Lizzie! For as long as he had known Ethan, he was always the guy that had the one thing that Gordo had wanted- having Lizzie like him as more than just a friend. That must be why he had always made fun of how dumb Ethan was and always put him down. "Yeah," Gordo said to Miranda, "maybe he does."  
  
"I thought so."   
  
"So maybe I'm jealous of Ethan. What now?"   
  
"I don't know. What am I, Dear Abby?"  
  
This wasn't the answer that Gordo was hoping for. "Well, thanks anyway." Gordo hoped to change the subject. He was getting uncomfortable thinking about how he may be jealous of someone. " Oh, have you gotten any news from Lizzie?"  
  
"Nope. Why? Have you?"  
  
Gordo sighed. "No. Her parents must have really taken away her phone for the Summer." He could not hide disappointment in his voice.   
  
Miranda was feeling kind of uncomfortable with the whole conversation and decided to end it. "Well, I think I've got to go. I'll talk to you later."  
  
"OK. Later." 


	5. The Arcade

Gordo's realization of why he had never liked Ethan hit him hard. So he was jealous of him. So he wished that Lizzie could like him in the same way she liked Ethan. So that's why he had always felt the need to make comments to Lizzie about how stupid Ethan was. What now? Miranda wasn't that much of a help. Gordo wished that she had never brought the thought up. 'What good is it to give a diagnoses,' he thought, 'if you don't have the cure. ' Gordo didn't know what to do, but he knew he didn't want to stay at home all day. He grabbed as handful of change off his dresser and headed to the mall.   
  
Gordo went straight to his favorite spot in the mall- the video arcade. Whenever he went to the mall with Lizzie and Miranda, he always seemed to come here after he had had enough girl talk. Even though they were his two best friends in the world, sometimes all their girl talk was just too much, especially at the mall .   
  
The mall was pretty empty, and the arcade had practically no one in it. Just one person on some sort of virtual reality game. Armed with a pocketful of quarters, he went straight to the Space Attack machine and began to attempt to rid the galaxy of evil alien robots.   
  
Right after he had completely destroyed the alien mother ship, he heard a familiar "Awesome!" come from across the arcade. Gordo peered over to only person in the arcade take off his VR helmet, revealing none other than Ethan Craft himself. This was the first time that Gordo had seen him since he had talked to Miranda and was apprehensive about confronting him. Before he could, Ethan saw him at the Space Attack game. "Hey, Gordon! How's it goin', man?"  
  
"Hey. Not bad. Kinda boring."  
  
"I totally get what you're saying. It's been like that with me too. It's like nothing's going on here. No ladies or nothin'."  
  
"Yep." Gordo attempted wanted to avoid the subject of 'ladies', as Ethan refered to them as, since he feared that this would shift the conversation to Lizzie. Gordo thought it would be uncomfortable to talk about his feelings about Lizzie to her crush, so he attempted to change the subject with some small talk. "So, uh.., what's this game you were on?"   
  
"Oh, dude, you've got to try this. It's, uhh.. vir-tu-ral snow-board-ing." said Ethan, sounding out the words on the sign above the game. "It's the best."  
  
"Snow boarding, huh? I don't know about that. I've never been snowboarding. I probably wouldn't be any good at it."  
  
"So what? You've never fought with aliens either. You haven't, right?"  
  
"Uhhh... no." Did he really just ask that? Maybe Miranda was wrong. Maybe Gordo wasn't jealous. Maybe Ethan was just an idiot.   
  
"Well, than you should be real good on this game too. Besides, it's all fake. You can't get hurt or killer or anything, I think."   
  
"Well, that's reassuring." Gordo said in a slightly sarcastic fashion.   
  
Ethan showed Gordo how the game worked, where to stand, and then put the VR helmet on Gordo's head. "See, you look in this thing to find out where you're going. And what you see if put up on that TV thing in here so everyone that isn't in your head can see where you're going."   
  
Only a little confused by Ethan's less-than-perfect explanation of the game, Gordo replied back with "All right. Let's try this thing out." Ethan put the coins into the machine and Gordo started the game.   
  
All went pretty good at first. Gordo did a better job that he thought and was pretty pleased with himself. Ethan watched the game on the screen for a quite while, or at least he did until he spotted a penny sitting on the ground just a few steps away. Suddenly his mind went blank at the mere sight of the shinny object and decided to pick it up. Walking toward the coin in a daze, Ethan felt his foot get stuck on something. He gave his foot a yank and, unknowingly, pulled a wire right out of the machine in the process.   
  
As soon as he had gotten the penny up off the ground, Ethan heard a terrible scream. Quickly snapped out of his daze, he noticed that the screen above the machine was bright and nearly blinding white. Then he noticed Gordo flailing wildly, screaming "Get it off!!! Get it off!!! and attempting to pry the VR helmet off his head. After a while, Ethan figured out something must be wrong. 


	6. Ethan's Invitation

The door to the Gordon's kitchen opened and Gordo's mother entered the room, leading her son, who was wearing a dark black blindfold over his eyes, with him. She directed him to a chair where he sat down. "So what exactly happened at the arcade today?" She asked curiously.   
  
Gordo had had about as much as he could take. "Mom, I don't want to talk about it."  
  
Mrs. Gordon could tell something was wrong. "Come on, you can tell me."  
  
Gordo sighed. "This has to be the worst summer of my entire life."  
  
"Oh, it's not that bad. The doctor said you could take it off in a couple of hours."  
  
"No. It's not the blindfold. It's everything. Nothing has gone right this Summer. It's not what I wanted it to be at all."  
  
"Oh, so this is about Lizzie."  
  
"Can everyone read my brain or am I really that transparent?"  
  
"Since I'm your mother, it might just be a little bit of both."   
  
Typical mom humor. "Ha ha," Gordo replied sarcastically.   
  
"Seriously, though, life isn't always going to go exactly what you want it to be, David. Sometimes things that we wish would happen don't and sometimes things that we wish would never happen do. But it all works out in the end."  
  
"I know that, but it doesn't make it any easier."  
  
"Sweetheart, I think you're taking all this out of perspective. If you just keep concentrating on what you want to happen someday, you'll miss all the good things that are happening around you right now."  
  
"Good things? Not seeing my friends for the entire Summer? Getting blinded at the arcade? Having to spend the Summer with the world's biggest idiot? Those are good things?"  
  
"Just look closer, you'll see." Gordo's mom left the room and left her son blindfolded and sitting at the kitchen table, thinking about what she had just said. Just then, he heard a knock on the front door. After a minute, his mom came back in the room. He could tell that she wasn't alone. "David," she called, "a friend is here to see you."  
  
A familiar voice followed her by saying. "Hey Gordon." Ethan sat down at the table and Mrs. Gordon left the room. Ethan was about the last person that Gordo wanted to see at this point (well.. hear actually), but he listened to him anyway. He was glad he was blindfolded so that Ethan would not see his eyes and be able to tell how made he was. "Dude, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened at the arcade. That was just like some kind of freak accident or somethin'."  
  
Gordo's voiced seemed to lack any emotion. "No, that's all right. It wasn't your fault."  
  
"Listen, I want to make it up to you. Remember that golf tournament I was telling you about at the Digital Bean?"  
  
"Yeah." Gordo was wondering where this would be leading.   
  
"Well I got tickets for it and I want you to come with me and my Step mom to it tomorrow."  
  
Gordo wasn't quite sure how to react to this. His first reaction was that this would be a disaster, but it seemed impolite to refuse a gift that's part of an apology. "Sure. OK." he said.   
  
"Great." Ethan was relieved that Gordo wasn't mad at him. "This is gonna rock."  
  
Gordo wasn't sure about that part. 


	7. Mrs Craft's Wild Ride

Gordo was walking through his Living Room when he heard a terrible screeching noise outside the house. This was followed by a loud honking horn. "That must be Ethan's step mom." Gordo thought aloud. He peered out the window and saw Mrs. Craft's car parked in the drive way. Gordo took a deep breath and hoped that this wouldn't be the disaster he thought it would be. He went outside and approached the car.   
  
From the passenger seat where he was sitting, Ethan unlocked the door to the backset and let Gordo in. He greeted Gordo in his usual fashion. "Hey, Gordon. How's it going?"  
  
"Pretty good." Gordo turned to Ethan's mom. "Hey there, Mrs. Craft."   
  
Mrs. Craft looked distressed by Gordo's greeting. "Hay? In the car?" she replied. "Where? I just had the car cleaned yesterday."  
  
"No," Ethan tried to explain to his step mother "he means 'hi'."   
  
"High? Like on the ceiling?" She still didn't get it.   
  
In his mind, Gordo took back all the times he said that Ethan must be the most dim-witted person on earth, and then aloud to her said, "Never mind."   
  
Mrs. Craft started the car up and put the car into drive. Unfortunately, she should have been going into reverse. Gordo screamed "Mrs. Craft! Reverse! Reverse!!" but she didn't understand. She didn't realize what he meant until after she had already crashed through the Gordon's garage door.   
  
"Oooohh... you mean backwards!" Mrs. Crafts switched gears and backed out of the driveway, assuring Gordo that she would pay to have the garage door fixed. Gordo groaned and slumped down in his seat. This was not starting well.  
  
After a couple minutes of silence, Mrs. Craft finally spoke up. "Well," she said, "how about some music? I'll just turn on the radio." She turned the dial, but all that came out was static. Mrs. Craft listened to it for a few seconds and then shook her head in disgust. "That's not a very good song."  
  
"Maybe there's something wrong with the radio." Gordo suggested.   
  
Mrs. Craft agreed"Well, if that's the music they play on it now a days, there's a big problem."  
  
"No, no," Gordo corrected her as politely as he could, "I mean maybe there is something wrong with this particular radio." She motioned like she understood.   
  
Ethan looked out his window. "Hey, Gordon, what's that thing on a car that sticks out and the music come in called?"  
  
Gordo gave his best guess to the question. "An... antenna?"   
  
"Yeah. That's it."   
  
"What about it?"  
  
"It's not on the car. I think it got stolen."  
  
Gordo stretched his neck to see that indeed the antenna was missing. "It looks like it just snapped off.   
  
Could it have happened when we crashed into the garage?"  
  
Ethan's eyes grew wider. "Hey... that could be it. Well, what can we do about it?"  
  
Gordo thought for a second. "Well, I'm no expert on cars, but I think if we took it to a mechanic, they could figure out how to fix it."  
  
Mrs. Craft turned her head to see Gordo in the back seat. "I don't think the radio is that important that we'd have to get it fixed right now. Maybe we could do that later." At that moment, the car lurched backwards like it had just hit something. Mrs. Craft turned back around to see that she had crashed into locked bumpers with the car in front of her.   
  
Mrs. Craft, Gordo, and Ethan just starred in disbelief at the crash for a couple of seconds, until Ethan finally said, "Maybe we better get that antenna fixed now." 


	8. The Realization

If one lucky thing had happened in the whole day, it was that the crash had happened within walking distance from a mechanic. Gordo, Ethan, and Mrs. Craft got out of the car and went to the station to get the car towed. When they returned to the car, they were met by a very angry man and a police officer, writing a ticket. "That's her," the man told the officer. "That's the woman who crashed into me."  
  
The officer approached Mrs. Craft. "Is this your vehicle, ma'am?"   
  
"I think so," Mrs. Craft replied back. "It's hard to tell. It doesn't usually look like that."   
  
"Cut the funny business." The officer thought she had to have been joking. "Is this your car or not?"  
  
Gordo interrupted. "Yes. Yes, that's her car."  
  
The officer started writing. "May I see your driver's license, ma'am?" She took it out and handed it to him.   
  
Ethan looked at his watch for a while and then looked up at Gordo. "I don't think we're going to make it to the golf tournament now." Well, that was a masterful stating of the obvious. Well, at least at least Gordo now knew that Ethan could tell time, at least enough to know that there was no way that they could make it on time.   
  
The officer check his hand-held computer screen. "Mrs. Craft," the officer called, "do you have any idea how many moving violations you have?"  
  
She thought about it for a bit. "A lot, I suppose. I move a lot."  
  
He started attempting to explain to her what he meant. "I mean, do you know how many accidents you've had while you have driven your car?"  
  
"A few, but I don't mean to do any of them."  
  
The officer started to get a little impatient. "Well, you happen to have so many that I'm going to have to take away your license. Driving is a privilege, not a right, you know."  
  
'Great,' Gordo thought. All this was too much. Gordo went into the Service Station, pulled out his cell phone, and called Miranda. He needed to talk to a friend right about now.   
  
Miranda answered her phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Hey, it's Gordo."  
  
"Gordo, what's up. Where are you."  
  
"I'm at a Service Station."  
  
"What? Speak up, I can't hear you."  
  
Gordo started talking louder. "I'm at a Service Station."  
  
"A Service Station? What are you doing there."  
  
"I was going to a golf tournament with Ethan and his step mom crashed into the car in front of her. Now the car is totaled, she got her license taken away, and we're stuck in this service station that's who knows where."  
  
"Wait. You were in Ethan Craft's step mom's car- and got in a wreck in it?"  
  
Gordo was getting even more annoyed. "Yes, and if you say 'Oh my gosh' just once I am going to hit myself on the head with a dipstick."  
  
"Wow, you're really upset."  
  
"Of course I am? I don't think I could stand spending another second with that dim-witted, idiotic..."  
  
"Wow, you're really jealous of him."  
  
That did it. "Miranda, I am not jealous of him! Why would I be jealous of him? He's the biggest doufus in the world! I can't think of anyone I would want to be like any less than Ethan Craft! And he's making this Summer the worst Summer of my life! I just can't take it-" Just then he turned around to see Ethan standing right behind him. He looked upset and had obviously heard the entire conversation. He turned around and without a word slowly walked away. Gordo didn't know what to do. And just stood there stunned   
  
When Miranda didn't hear anything out of her friend for a while, she started to try to get his attention. "Gordo? Gordo are you there?"   
  
Gordo snapped out of it and put the phone back to his ear. "I'll have to call you back." 


	9. Lucky

Gordo found Ethan sitting on the curb outside the service station. He looked different than Gordo had ever seen him before. He looked very upset and just stared down at the sidewalk. Gordo slowly approached him. "Hey."  
  
"Hey." Ethan responded back, but his eyes remained glued to the sidewalk.   
  
Gordo took a deep breath. "I.. uh.. wanted to say that... I'm sorry about what I said in there."  
  
"No, man. That's o.k."  
  
"No, it isn't. I shouldn't have said something like that."  
  
Ethan's eyes kept on the sidewalk. Gordo sighed and started to walk away. Suddenly Ethan started to talk. "Miranda thinks you're jealous of me..." Gordo walked back over to Ethan and sat down next to him, "but I think maybe I'm the one that's jealous of you."  
  
Gordo was shocked. "Jealous of me? But you're the most popular guy in school. Everyone like you. Why are you jealous of me?"   
  
"Yeah... everybody in school likes me, but nobody, like, cares about me, you know? They all like me because they think I'm cool or all the ladies think I'm hot or whatever, but nobody likes me for me. You get what I'm sayin'?"  
  
"Yeah, I do." Gordo was finally beginning to understand.   
  
"But you... you're smart, and you have great friends." Ethan signed. "You don't have girls who don't even know you fighting over who's going to a dance with you like your a trophy or something."   
  
"Ethan, I had no idea."  
  
"You may never want to be like me, but i would give anything to be like you."  
  
Gordo didn't know what to say. "But, Ethan, you're smart." Gordo couldn't believe that that phrase came out of his mouth, but continued what he was about to say. "Remember at the Digital Bean when you explained to me all about golf and all the rule and how to play?"  
  
"Yeah. So what?"  
  
"Well, you knew all that from memory. If you can memorize all that, you could memorize all the things you need to know in school if you apply yourself to learning them like you do with all that about golf."   
  
Ethan began to cheer up. "Hey, maybe you're right."  
  
"And about having people like you for who you are, they can't like you for who you are if they don't know who you are. To do that, you've got to show people who you really are. That means just being yourself."   
  
"But Gordon, you were right. I'm just a big dim-witted... umm.." Ethan tried desperately to remember the word that Gordo had used to described him to Miranda. "Doo.."  
  
"Doufus?"  
  
"Yeah. Yeah, that's it."  
  
"Well, if that's what you are, then a good friend would still like you even if you are a doufus. And they would always be there for you no matter what."Gordo felt guilty after he said that. He knew that he hadn't been being a very good friend to Ethan. He knew that had to change.   
  
"But what about the ladies? When are they gonna see me as more than just a pretty face?"   
  
"Well," Gordo thought for a second. "First you've got to befriend them."  
  
Ethan was confused. "Befriend? Like, be friends?"  
  
"Uhh.. yeah." Gordo said. "You can't really love someone before you know them."  
  
"Huh. Guess not."  
  
"Then you've got to build up trust between them and treat them like they're special. Then, once they get to know you, then they'll start to like you for you. Then, after a while, you'll find the one girl that you feel that you can't live without."  
  
"Like you and Lizzie?"  
  
Gordo was slightly embarrassed at that comment. He thought for a second and realized it was exactly right and replied back, "Yeah. Just like me and Lizzie."  
  
"That's cool. You know, Gordon, you're really lucky."  
  
Gordo smiled. "Yeah... I guess I am." 


	10. The More Things Change, The More They St...

It was late in the evening when a taxi cab pulled into the Gordon's driveway. Mr. Gordon was standing in front of the garage still examining the still-broken garage door with some concern. As soon as Gordo got out of the cab Mr. Gordon came over to him. "David, what happened? Are you OK."  
  
"Yeah, dad, everything's fine. We were in kind of an accident."  
  
Mr. Gordon motioned to the battered garage door "Yeah, I could tell that."  
  
Mrs. Craft and Ethan exited the cab and introduced themselves to Mr. Gordon. "Hi. I'm Tawny Craft. Ethan's Step mom."  
  
Gordo's dad shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Howard Gordon, David's father."  
  
Ethan looked confused. "I thought you were Gordon's dad."  
  
Mr. Gordon looked at his son, not knowing what kind of response to give to Ethan's statement. Gordo just said "I'll explain it later, Ethan."  
  
"Oh, OK dude," Ethan nodded.   
  
Mrs. Gordon appeared at the front door. "Oh, good. You're home. Why don't we all come inside and talk this out?" Her husband agreed with her and showed everyone in. Mrs. Gordon went into the kitchen to get some drinks while Gordo went upstairs. As they passed by, she handed him an envelope. "This came for you in the mails today."  
  
No sooner after Gordo entered the room did his phone start to ring. He picked up the phone to hear Miranda's frantic voice. "Gordo? Is that you? What happened at the Service Station? Is everything all right? You weren't answering your cell phone."  
  
Gordo had completely forgot that he had told Miranda that he would call her back. "Oh, sorry I didn't call you back. Something came up."  
  
"Well what happened? Don't keep me in suspense here."  
  
Gordo sighed. "Well it turned out that Ethan was standing right behind me and heard the whole thing."  
  
At that, Miranda just melted. "Awww.. is he OK?"   
  
"Yeah, I think so. We talked and I think everything's been worked out."  
  
"Well good, cause if it wasn't I would have let you have it when I got home. Ethan Craft is way too cute to be in that much pain."  
  
Gordo rolled his eyes. "Miranda, why do you always have to talk about him that way."  
  
"Because... it's true?"  
  
"Do you think he likes to be talked about that way? Ethan has feelings too."  
  
Miranda was taken aback by this. "You care about Ethan's feelings? Is this the same Gordo who use to say that Ethan Craft was the stupidest person on Earth?"  
  
"Well, maybe I was wrong... or jealous or something."  
  
"So, basically you're saying that I was, oh..., right?" Miranda said in a smug tone.   
  
"Yeah, yeah. You were right. I guess he's not such a bad guy."  
  
Gordo noticed that he was still holding the envelope that his mother handed him when he got home. He looked at the return address and smiled. Forgetting that Miranda was still on the other line, he ripped it open and began reading the letter. On the other line, Miranda was unsure of what exactly was going on. "Gordo, is something wrong with your phone? I heard this crackling sound."  
  
"Oh, that was nothing. I was just opening a letter from Lizzie."  
  
"Lizzie sent you a letter? I thought she was grounded."  
  
"Yeah, but I guess her parents thought that this was OK."  
  
"Well, read it. I'm dying to hear what it says."  
  
Gordo began reading. "Grodo- Hey. I hope you're Summer's going OK. My parents finally let me have some contact with the outside world, but I'm still grounded for the rest of the Summer. Things have been kind of boring here. Matt's been a pain and my parents have been really dopey. It seems like every day Mom looks at me and says, 'My little Lizzie is growing up so fast'." What can you expect from parents? Anyway, I hope everything's going OK with you and I can't wait to see you when school starts. I'll write soon, I hope. Lizzie."  
  
"Wow, I never thought I'd hear Lizzie say that she can't wait for school to start. Maybe that means that she likes you."  
  
"Maybe." Gordo was embarrassed to say that he really hopped that she was right. "But until she comes back, I can just enjoy what's happening right now."  
  
"Even if it mean spending the Summer with 'The World's Biggest Doufus'?"  
  
No sooner had she said that than he heard a large crash downstairs in the kitchen followed by a familiar "Sorry" being shouted so that everyone in the house could hear." Gordo wasn't sure how, but Ethan has defiantly done it again.   
  
Gordo thought about what Miranda had said for a second and replied back, "Well, maybe."  
  
The End  
  
*Author's Note*- I hope you enjoyed my first Fan Fiction. I'm planning another that will be sort of a sequel to this one with Miranda coming back from Mexico, but I'm not sure how soon I'll have it up. In the mean time, please help me out by reviewing this story. I want to thank everyone who has already read and reviewed my story, but I would love to have more so I know what works and what doesn't and hopefully be able to make my second story even better than my first. Thanks again and I hope you liked it. 


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